A Child's Learning of Equality

by HRM Deborah

While my grandmother and mother taught me the Islamic framework of equality before I was seven years old, I did not learn the importance of this idea; until I was seven and the year was 1965.

In trying to have better relations with someone because to be honest they did not like certain types of people, not withstanding my mother and her family just happened to be on the list, even against her husbands wishes.

But by my seventh year, her husband had already been a martyr for over three years; for he was the Christian Minister that tried to save my mother’s and my life, when I was four.

For understanding, what happened to her husband, had nothing to do with her feeling's for my family; it had to do with racism.

For a little time while I was trying to help this woman, I came into contact with a medium size group of people that had by this time began to do much better financially after surviving the Great Depression of the 1930’s, in Texas and by this time was living in Southern California.

Also, along this small journey among these people, I met a fairly large farm family that was rather poor, while they may have had faded patched clothes, they where always clean and very neat.

The medium size group decided they did not wish to have the poor family to be among them and began being rather cruel and for a little time talking behind there back. Just before this ordeal became heated, I had gotten for a very brief time friends with the poor families youngest daughter, she had the blondest hair I had ever seen and so very kind; she was also the same age as myself.

The day came, that this group was going to make it official that the farm family had to go and while I did not believe this kind of treatment was acceptable, because I was very short in those days; I climbed up on a bench and began talking about equality of people and the fact that it did not make any difference of a person’s finances or who they where, that they were just as important as the next fellow.

While the farm family still was forced to leave and I did amaze people that a child of this age could talk like I did, to even being told at seven years-old that I did not quite understand, which I did, because the woman I originally was trying to help, did learn a little something that day.

Over the years until the woman’s death, we may not had the best relations; at least we learned a small seed of respect for one another.

As for the girl with blonde hair, at least she knows after all these years, as I promised; I never forgot her.